Capital cricket grounds to host World Twenty20 games

GARY HEATLY

Three Edinburgh cricket grounds have been handed the honour of hosting ICC World Twenty20 qualifiers in July.

The Grange, Goldenacre and Myreside are the venues in the Capital selected by the ICC while Stirling’s New Williamsfield will be used too.

Between the three Edinburgh facilities, there will be a total of 16 tournament matches and six warm-up encounters played.

Matches during the event will also be hosted by four grounds in Ireland – Stormont in Belfast, Bready in County Tyrone and Malahide and Clontarf in Dublin.

The Grange will host nine matches in total with seven at Heriot’s Goldenacre and six at Watsonians’ Myreside.

The Grange will be one of two broadcast venues, along with Malahide, and the club president Rawdon Hesketh said: “We are very much looking forward to hosting such prestigious matches at our ground.

“It is great for Scottish cricket and the public that such high-quality sport will be coming here and it should be a cracking tournament.”

During the event, 14 international sides will battle it out over 18 days between July 9 and 26.

Six sides will then earn places at the World Twenty20 in India in 2016.

Scotland, who have previously played in the World Twenty20 in 2007 and 2009, will be in Group B.

They will play a warm-up match against Namibia at The Grange on July 6 and another against Jersey at Goldenacre the following day. They will then play UAE at The Grange (July 9), the Netherlands (The Grange, July 11), Afghanistan (The Grange, July 12), Kenya (The Grange, July 14), and then Canada and Oman at Goldenacre (July 16 and 18).

Group A is made up of Ireland, Nepal, Hong Kong, Papua New Guinea, Namibia, USA and Jersey.

The sides that top the two groups will automatically qualify for the World Twenty20 competition with the four others who go through being decided after various play-offs in Ireland.